Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-01-12

have none of these-neither wealth, MOI
eloquence, nor learning-you at any rate
nave smile with which you can encourage
he disheartened; a frown with which you
may blast injustice; voice with which you
may call the wanderer back to God. so.
you say, "that is very sanctimonious view
If lifep' 1t is not. 1t is the only bright
view of life, and it is the only bright view
If death. Contrast the death scene of man
who has measured life by the worldly stand
! lrd with the death scene of a man who has
measured life by the Christian standard
Qninn, the actor, in his last moments said
81 hope this tragic scene will soon be over,
and hope to keep my dignity to the last"
Malherbe said in his last moments to the
confessor: "Hold your tongue! your miser-
tble style puts me out of conceit with heav-
en-" Lord Chesterfield, in his last mo-
ments, when he ought to have been praying
for his soul, bothered himself about the
Droprieties of the sick room and said: "Give
Dayboles chair.'' Godfrey Kneller spent
his last hours on earth in drawing dia-
gram of his own monument. Compare the
silly and horrible departure of such men
with the seraphic glow on the face of Ed
| ward Payson, as he said in his last moment:
''The breezes of heaven fan me. float in
sea of glory Or, with Paul, the Apos-
ready to be offered up, and the time of my
departure is at hand. I have fought the
good fight, have kept the faith. Hence
forth, there is laid up for me a crown of
Righteousness which the Lord, the Right
eous Judge, will give me-" Or compare it
| with the Christian death-bed that you wit
messed in your own household. Oh, my
friends, this world is false god! 1t will
consume you with the blaze in which it ac-
cepts your sacrifice, while the righteous
shall be held in everlasting remembrance;
and when the thrones have fallen, and the
monuments have crumbled, and the world
has perished, they shall banquet with the
conquerers of earth and the hierarchs of
| heaven.
| This is good day in which to begin
new style of measurement. How old art
theu? Yen see the Christian way of mea-
surfing life and the worldly way Of measur-
| ing it. leave it to you to say which is the
wisest and best way. The wheel of time
has turned very swiftly and it has hurried us
on. The old year has gone. The new year
has come. For what you and have been
| launched upon it God only knows.
| Now, let me ask you all: Have you
made any preparation for the future? You
| have made preparation for time, my dear
brother; have you made any preparation for
eternity? Do you wonder that that man OH
| the Hudson river, in Indignation. tore up
| the tract which was handed to him, and
| Just one word landed on his coat sleeve
| the rest of the tract being pitched into the
river-that one word aroused his soul2 It
was that one word-solong, So bread, SO
| high, SO deep-eternity! A dying woman,
| in her last moments, said. "Oall it back!"
| They said, "What do you want2'' "Time,"
she said; ''call it baekr' Oh, it cannot be
called back. We might lose our fortunes
and call them back; we might lose our
health, and perhaps recover it; we might
lose oul good name and get that back; but
time gone is gone forever.
Some of you, during the past year, made
preparation for eternity, and it makes no
difference to you really, as to the matter of
safety, whether you go now or go some 9TH
er year--whether this year or the next
year. 10th your feet on the rock, the waves
may dash around you. You can say: ''God
is our refuge and strength-a very present
help" You are on the Rock, and you may
defy all earth and hell to overthrow you
congratulate you. I give you great Joy.
1t is happy New Year to you.
can see no sorrow at all in the fact that
our years are going. Yeu hear some people
say: 81 wish | could go back again to boy
hood" l would not want to go back again
to boyhood. am afraid I might make
worse life out of it than I have made You
could rot afford to go back to boyhood if it
were possible. You might do great deal
worse than you have done. The past is
gone. Look out for the future!
To all Christians, it is q time of gladness.
I am glad the years are going. You are
coming on nearer home. Let your counte-
nance light up with the thought. Nearer
home!
Now, when one can sooner get to the CEN
tire of things, is he not to be congratulated?
Who wants to be always in the Freshma an
Glass? We study God in this world by the
Biblical photograph of Him; but we all
know we can in five minutes of interview
with friend get more accur>Ie idea of him
than we can by studying MIN fifty years
through pictures or words. The little
child that died at six months of age knows
more of God than all Andover, and all
Princeton, and all New Brunswick, and all
Edinburgh, and all the theological institu-
tons in Christendom. Is it not better to
go up to the very headquarters of knowl-
edge?
Does not our common sense teach US that
| it is better to Be at the centre than to be
| clear out on the rim of the wheel, holding
| fast to the tire lest we be suddenly hurled
| into light, and eternal felicity? Through
all kinds of optical instruments trying to
peer in through the cracks and the keyholes
of heaven-afraid that both doors of the
celestial mansion will be swung wide open
before our entranced vision-rushing about
| the apothecary shops of this world, wonder
| ing if this is good fer rheumatism, and that
| is good for neuralgia, and something else is
good for bad congh, less We be suddenly
ushered into land of everlasting health,
where the inhabitant never says: 81 am
sick"
| What fools we all are to prefer the cir
conference to the centre. What dread
| full thing it would be if we should be sud-
denly ushered from this wintry world into
the Maytme orchards of heaven, and if our
pauperism of sin and sorrow should be sud-
denly broken up by presentation of an
emperer's castle surrounded by parks with
springing fountains and paths, up and down
which angels of God walk two and two.
We are like persons standing on the cold
steps of the National Picture Gallery in
London, under umbrellas in the rain,
afraid to go in amid the Turner'S, and the
Titians, and the Raphaels. l come to them
gallery? "Oh," they say, Eve don't
|
"Don't you see the door is open9' eyes,"
they say, "but we have been SO long on
these cold steps, we are so attached to them
we don't like to leave.'' ''But," I say
it is so much brighter and more beautiful
in the gallery, you had better go y
"No." they say, 1--WE know exactly how it
is out here, but we don't know how it is in
there" o, let us be glad that we are one
year nearer the scene that explains all, and
irradiates all!
In 1885 the French resolved that at Ghent
they would have kind of musical demon
stration that had never been heard of. 1t
would be made up of the chimes of bells
and the discharge of cannon. The expert
ment was perfect success. What with
the ringing of the bells and the report of
the ordnance, the city trembled, and the
hills shook with the triumphal march that
was as strange as it was overwhelming.
With more glorious accompaniment, will
Gods dear children go into their high resi-
dence, when the trumpsts shall sound and
the I asst Day has come At the signal